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STEPHEN B. WEEKS 


@|- CLASS OF 1886; PH.D. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 


a LIBRARY 

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 


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Condition of the South, 





Mr. WADDELL. Mr. Speaker, I approach 
the task which my duty as a member of the 
Committee on Alleged Outrages in the South- 
ern States imposes upon me with .unfeigned 
reluctance. ‘lhe country is wearied with the 
subject, the people are sick of the hollow 
hypocrisy of this Ku Klux crusade; but, 
although as an individual I do not claim and 
cannot expect the same degree of attention 
which has been and will be accorded to my 
more distinguished colleagues on the commit- 
tee, it is still my. misfortune to be the only 
original member of that committee who is a 
native resident and Representative of a State 
affected by this report and the legislation on 
which it is based, and therefore only I speak. 
I shall do go very plainly, because I feel very 
deeply ; but I am not weak enough to suppose 


that anything I may say will affect in the least | 


degree the action of the House; I know that 
if | should speak with the tongues of men and 
of angels, and in the spirit of heavenly charity, 
and should produce proofs as strong as Holy 
Writ to show the disastrous effects of the estab- 
_ lished policy of the Government toward my 
unfortunate countrymen, my words would still 
be but as sounding brass anda tinkling cymbal. 
Tam painfully sensible of the fact that south- 
ern Representatives are powerless here, except 
to the extent of their votes, and I know full 
well how futile it is for one of us to protest 
against the grievous wrongs under which our 
people have suffered and are suffering. If we 
bear wituess to them we are discredited ; if we 
denounce them we are accused of disloyalty ; 
silence concerning them is misconstrued into 
acquiescence; approval and justification of 
them open the only path to preferment. I 
must not remain silent; I cannot approye then. 
but in spite of the penalty I will bear witmess 
and I will denounce. 

Congress passed a bill at the lage session 
entitled ‘‘ An act to enforce the provisions of 





{ 
| 


the fourteenth amendment, and for other pur- 
poses.’’ The other and real purpose, as every 
intelligent man in the country well knew, was 
to make political capital for the Republican 
party so as to carry the next presidential elec- 
tion. It ebmbined the two usual characteristics 
of all legislation aimed at the South, namely, 
bad motive and bald unconstitutionality. I 
know that in these piping times of central- 
ism the unconstitutionality of a measure is no 
argument against it; that the higher law of 
narty necessity controls; that States have 
uo rights, reserved or, otherwise, against the 
encroachments of the ‘‘ central power,’’ as 
the court journal exultingly terms it, and [ 
only allude to that as an interesting feature of 
the bill. The great object in passing it was 
not to give the President power to crush out a 
new rebcllion, which ‘‘threatened the life of 
the nation,’’ but to rouse the passions and ex- 
cite the fears of the northern people with the 
pretense that such a conspiracy agaiast the 
Government really existed, and thus to unite 
them for the coming campaign. I have until 
recently sometimes feared that that object has 
been accomplished, because the perfect in- 
difference, the utter insensibility exhibited 
throughout the country in regard to acts of 
absolute despotism committed by officers civil 
and military, State and national, were diflicult 
to account for except upon that hypothesis. 
Since the passage of the act occurrences which 
a few years ago would have convulsed the 
country have happened without producing ai 
the time aripple upon the surface of public 
opinion, and all the odium which rightfully 
attached to them has been skillfully transferred 
to blameless shoulders by those who are face: 
tiously termed public servants. 
Now, cir, [do not intend to occupy the atti 
tude which some gentlemen seem to think i» 


the appropriate one fur a southern Represent - 
oP 8 eRe 
‘ 


I am not here as the defender of « 


ative. 








constituency of criminals. I have no excuses 
or apologies to make for them, or for myself. 
Whatever my deficiencies of intellect or expe- 
rience may be, I stand here unmuzzled, as 
your peer, and speak for a constituency in 
every respect equal to the proudest represented 
here, and only distinguished from it by sub’ 
lime fortitude under crushing and relentless 
calamity and persecution. I intend not to 
palliate the falsely alleged offenses of my coun- 
trymen, not to regret that they do not enjoy 
the peculiar civilization of other parts of the 
country, with which they are continually and 
offensively taunted; not to plead for clemency 
to them, but to denounce the tyranny, the op- 
pression, the wrong, and robbery which have 
been practiced upon them for six years, and 
which, becoming familiar as they have to the 
American people, threaten to destroy the last 
vestige of constitutional liberty throughout 
this land. And in the performance of.this 
duty I shall not mince my words. 

Let it be understood, too, at the outset that 
I speak not as a partisan, but as a represent- 
ative of thousands of free-born American citi- 
zens. I repudiate utterly, in this connection, 
any interest whatever in any political party. 
The southern people have ceased to be enthu- 
siasts on that subject. It may be very proper 
for gentlemen representing northern and west- 
ern constituencies to become excited in regard 
to questions of finance, the tariff, civil service 
reform, and the like; but all these things are 


at this time matters of but little moment to’ 


the people of the States purposely, falsely, and 
insultingly called ‘‘insurrectionary.”’ 

We care nothing about your syndicates, or 
high tariffs, or foreign relations, or Tammany 
thefts, or custom-house frauds, or other such 
questions, so long as you continue, as you have 
done, to persecute and slander us, to rob us of 
our right of local self-government, and to legis- 
late in every way against our interests. 

It seems that a certain class of persons (and 
unfortunately a ruling class) will never relent 
or cease to gratify their cowardly malice toward 
the ruined people of the South. They are, 
fortunately for the character of the American 
people, not the class whose courage on the 
battle-field shed honor upon the American 
name. The hard-fighting soldiers and sailors 
of the North, with rare exceptions, have no 
sympathy with this mean, malignant spirit, 
and there has not been a day since 1865 when 
the people of the South would not willingly 
have committed to their hands the settlement 
of all questions affecting the public welfare. 
Even under all their afflictions, which the elo- 
quent Senator from Missouri—himself once an 
exile—has pronounced to be without a paral- 
lel in modern times, they have promptly and 
faithfully complied with every condition which 
has been required of them. They religiously 





abided by the terms of surrender demanded 
by one whom they then regarded as a mag- 
nanimous conqueror; notwithstanding their 
loss of more than three billions of property, 
their enforced repudiation of debts due to their 
own people, and their utter impoverishment, 
they were compelled to pay heavy taxes 
without representation, one of which taxes, 
amounting to $65,000,000 was imposed in vio- 
lation of the Constitution ; they complied with 
President Johnson’s requirements, and after 
starting their State governments again, they 
were compelled to undo all their work and sub- 
mit to the new requirements of Congress; 
they were reconstructed over and over again, 
and were robbed with regularity by the horde 
of rapacious rascals who were turned loose 
on them; they were humiliated and degraded 
in countless ways, but they offered no resist- 
ance, and only kept up a struggle for bread. 
Agd although this process has been going on 
for more than six years, to the disgrace of the 
country, and, (as another Republican Senator 
said,) to the disgrace of the civilization of the 
age, there seems to be no disposition in our 
rulers to change it, unless for the worse. A 
leading Republican newspaper (the New York 
Tribune) recently said that ‘‘the condition of 
the southern States after six years ,of recon- 
struction can only be described as pitiful.’’ 
Now, if this be true, and no one will doubt 
it, where rests the responsibility for it? Who 
did the reconstruction that produced it? Did 
we after the war establish governments for 
our own degradation and oppression, and organ- 
ize the system of robbery of our own people 
which has resulted in the general bankruptcy 
of those States? Did we organize the secret 
societies called the ‘‘League,’’ the ‘‘ Heroes 
of America,’’ and the ‘‘Red Strings,’’ which 
began the system of intimidating voters by 
threats and scourgings, and sought revenge by 
barn-burnings and murder? Did we commit 
the crime of attempting to set the pyramid of 
government on its apex instead of its base, 
which my friend from Indiana [Mr. Voor- 
HEES] has so forcibly depicted? Did we put 
on the bench and in other high places rene- 
gade secessionists, whose highest ambition in 
life seems to be to hunt down the very men 
whom they led into resistance to the Federal 
power? No, we did not; and yet all these 
things and worse have happened to us. _. 
The Republican party is responsible for all 
the troubles which have befallen the southern 
States since the war. They all resulted from 
the bad governments established and sustained 
by that party. Frauds and villainies previously 
unknown in the history of those States were 
perpetrated by that party to such an extent as 
to render disorder and crime inevitable; and 
then, when the crimes and disorders naturally 
followed, the virtuous and patriotic officehold- 


5 








ers raised the cry of ‘‘ Ku Klux,”’ §‘ rebellion,” 
and ‘‘disloyalty.”’ 

Let me read you the language of an intelli- 
gent Republican on that subject. I quote from 
a letter of H. H. Helper to Secretary Bout- 
well, dated March 23, 1871. After detailing 


numerous acts of infamy committed by officers | 


in North Carolina, and after making an earn- 
est appeal for reform in the Republican party, 
Mr. Helper says: 


“One of the greatet evils affecting society in 
‘North Carolina may justly be set down to the in- 
competent and worthless State and Federal officials 
now in power. They are for the most part pestifer- 
ous ulcers feeding upon the body-politic. They 
should be cut down immediately, and left to wither 


and rot on the wayside of Republicanism, or else 


Republicanism will be throttled to death by these 
villainous rascals. It is through these gentry that 
the political sty in North Carolina has become so 
very filthy. It needs to be cleansed by introducing 
better men into both State and Federal position. 
So far as Federal places are concerned you have 
power to act. Shall we-have better men, through 
whom the State may be redeemed, orshall we dilly- 
dally along, and thus permit the Republican party, 
of which I am an uncompromising member for 
Republican principle only, to go down to irrevoc- 
able defeat in 1872 with a majority of twenty thou- 
sand? — 

““One word more. Reconstruction for North Car- 
olina, as carried out by Congress and the villainous 
and incompetent State and Federal officials within 
her borders, has proved a total failure. When the 
historian comes to write the history of these evil 
times, truth will impel him to declare that the Ku 
Klux business of to-day grew out of things com- 
plained of in these statements. 

“The only way to effectually rid the country of 
these wicked midnight assassins is to first remove 
the cause which brought them into existence, and 
then apply rigid means for their swift extirpation.”’ 


This Ku Klux business has been a God- 
send to that party. It has enabled them to 
make the ery ‘‘ Stop thief’’ successful; it has 
been skillfully used to divert attention from 
their own crimes to the crimes of others nat- 
urally following them; it has been grossly 
magnified and misrepresented, bad as it was, 
and has been used entirely for party purposes. 
Now, sir, I do not hesitate to say that while I 
have always’in public and private denounced 
Ku Kluxism, yet when I consider the infam- 
ously corrupt and tyrannical governments 
which produced it, the wonder to meis that it 
has not been much worse. I believe that if 
the same provocations had existed in the north- 
ern States, and particularly in New England, 
which existed in the South, the crime and dis- 
order would have been infinitely greater, and 
to sustain the assertion genore the language 


of a northern newspaper, which, in comment: 
ing upon this report, says: 

“The North has been called phlegmatic. But 
half the wrong endured here that is endured South 
would plant a gallows at every cross roads.” 


Even without any such provocation more 
crimes have been committed in northern than 
in southern States during the past four years, 
in which, according to this majority report, 
these Ku Klux or vigilance committees have 
been operating. It does not afford me the 
same pleasure to expose them which other 
gentlemen seem to take in portraying the 
alleged ignorance and barbarism of my south- 
ern countrymen, and I certainly do not intend 
to follow their example by abusing and malign- 
ing the whole northern people on account of 
their criminal records; but justice demands 
that those who live in glass houses should be 
taught not to/throw stones. . 

.Recently, when my friend from Delaware 
[Mr. Biees] was entertaining the House by 
reading the number and character of the 
crimes committed in Massachusetts during a 
period of three or four years, the gentleman 
from the latter State [Mr. Hoar] tried to have 
it appear that the native population of his 
State were a race of innocent lambs, (which 
if their war record had been the subject of dis- 
cussion would have been cheerfully acceded 
to by everybody,) and that the foreign popu- 
lation there were the criminals, (which if mak- 
ing up the quota of Massachusetts during the 
war had been the offense would have been 
equally true;) but it is well known that the 
infusion of foreign blood is all that saves that 
race from rapid extinction; and I think that 
sort of interference on their part is the worst 
crime for which the foreign population is 
chargeable. They have a high appreciation 
of education there,” however, for [ find ina 
report of the inspectors of public institutions 
of Boston that they imprison boys between 
seven and sixteen years of age for not going 
to school, sentencing them to terms of from 
three to twenty-four months, and during six 
months of the year they are worked ona farm, 
never entering a school-room or receiving any 
school education during that time. In other 
words, if a boy does not go to school they jail 
him and keep him out of sehool half the year 
by way of punishment. But, with all their 
unique appliances for cultivating the mind 
and heart, the serpent has managed somehow 
to enter that Eden; for I find in the same 
report a statement which ought to close the 
mouth of the gentleman from Massachusetts 
forever from sneering at the barbarisms of 
other communities than his own: 


** Indecent Exposureof Women and Girls.—With the 
exception of the House of Reformation for Juvenile 


Ms 





Offenders, and in the boys’ department, which is 
furnished with one spacious tub in which the frolic- 
someness of boyhood can disport itself with a quite 
limited freedom, all the prisons are provided with 
the ordinary bath-tub, from three to seven in num- 
ber, and placed side by side, at distances of from 
twelve to twenty-four inches apart; these are all in 
open rooms, without any screen or protection what- 
ever, and in these publicly-exposed tubs the prison- 
ers, men, women, and girls, in their respective de- 
partments, in groups of from three to seven, are 
required to perform their ablutions. Old offenders, 
young offenders, girls of nine and ten years of age, 
alike must disrobe themselves, and in full observa- 
tion of their fellows and officers, in a state of utter 
nudity, enter thebath, perform its duty; and partake 
its refreshment. We are far from advocating any 
sentimental delicacy, but we do submit that there is 
scarcely any prisoner, however callous in the paths 
of crime, from however low and degraded a sphere 
of social life he may have come, that at this required 
exposure at the bath-tub will not feel his rudi- 
mental nature at least somewhat shocked. But not 
all the prisoners are hardened, not all from the lower 
walks of life, not all are without much of the refining 
culture of our New England society. All life has 
here its. representatives; young girls and maidens 
are here, tender, plastic, sensitive, full of the mod- 
esty of nature, and it may beculture also; some with 
no other charge of crime than not habitually attend- 
ang the public school, and the single question is, is 
it proper, prudent, reformatory, necessary for any 
purpose that these should be compelled, promiscu- 
ously in public nudity, to the bath, when an outlay 
of from five to ten dollars would afford them a pro- 
tecting shelter without in any way diminishing the 
oversight or control of their keepers? It seems to 
us very clear and admitting but a single answer. 
We therefore ask that the evil may be at once reme- 
died and no longer characterize any Suffolk prison. 

* Brutality to Girls—Whipping Boys with Wagon- 
Whipns.—On the 13th of July, the day previous to 
the visit of the inspectors, one of the girls in the 
female department of this house had been severely 
punished, and it became our painful duty to invest- 
igate the circumstances. The girl was seventeen 
years of age, and coming eighteen the ensuing May, 
in stature a woman grown; it is said she had been 
avery troublesome girl. On this occasion she was 
charged with open and direct disobedience of orders 
and insolence of language; she frankly admitted this 
offense, and for it was*punished by the superintend- 
ent in person witha rattan about half an inch in 
diameter and twenty inches long, upon tke shoul- 
ders and back of the neck—the number of blows no 
onecan report. The superintendent says, ‘I struck 
her with all my might;’ ‘she would not yield, I 
sent for a larger stick, and then she held out her 
hand.’ After this beating and this subniission she 
was committed to the cell and the food of the soli- 
tary, where we found her on the 8lst day of July. 
Upon each shoulder the flesh was discolored, blue- 





a ne 





— —as 





black in spots full as large as the palm of the hand, 

and there were perfectly evident traces of blows 
upon her back and shoulders. She seems to us a 

resolute girl, of more than ordinary strength of pur- 
pose and character; there were unmistakable evi-. 
dences also that her feelings were quick to respond 

to appeals of tenderness and good-will as no doubt 
they are in quick passion. 

““On the 5th of August we again visited the insti- 
tution; she was suffering the solitary, it being the 
seventh day of her incarceration ; her shoulders 
were still strongly discolored; the same indications 
of character were manifest; it appeared she had 
been visited by the matron daily with food, and 
by the physician, who seems by the rules not to be 
allowed to ‘hold communication with any inmates 
except in pursuance of his medical duty.’ She 
stated she had not been spoken to by any officer of 
the establishment about her misconduct, her peni- 
tence, her resolves or purposes, or about anything 
connected with her imprisonment, and to this ex~ 
tent her staterfénts were not denied. We repeated 
these statements to the superintendent, who replted 
by this question to the girl, ‘Have you ever sent for 
me?’ to which she answered, ‘No, sir,’?and to which 
he rejoined, ‘Well, then.’ She was finally released 
from the cell on the evening of the 5th day of Au- 
gust, the same day of our second visit. Speaking 
of the corporeal punishment, the superintendent 
remarked, ‘It Was the severest flogging I ever had 
to do.’ Inthe course of this investigation we were 
informed by this officer that in the boys’ depart- 
ment the punishments are sometimes inflicted with 
an ordinary Wagon-whip by the superintendent in 
person,” - 

All this was going on while those haman- 
itarians were engaged in buying substitutes to, 
go down and fight the cruel slave-drivers of the 
South. It must have been in one of these 
humane institutions that those boys were edu- 
cated who some time ago stoned a schuol- 
mistress to death. | Is it to save their ebildren 
from this kind.of high civilization that the 
GREAT CRIME Of New England is so common? 
lor it is unquestionably true that more human 
beings are destroyed before they come into 
existence there in the course of five years than 
have ever been so destroyed in the southern 
States since the foundation of the Government. 
The Ku Klux in North Carolina wait until their 
victims reach manhood, and until they commit - 
crime and escape from punishment, before they 
take them in hand; but the New England ku 
Klux destroy the innocent unborn. We all re- 
member the horrible exposé made by the bureau 
of statistics of that State two years ago, in 
regard to the cruel and inhuman overworking © 
of poor little children in the factories. lt 
was announced in that report that children 
under fifteen, and some under ten years of 
age were worked ‘eleven hours a day in. fac- 
tories all over the State;’’ and one oversecy 

. : 


testified that he had seen them go to sleep 
while standing at their work, and was com- 
pelled ‘‘to sprinkle water in their faces to 
arouse them after having spoken to them uptil 
hoarse.’’? According to the census, there are 
in North Carolina 214,142 male citizens over 
twenty-one years of age, and in Massachusetts 
there are 312,770, and yet, notwithstanding the 
superior culture and refinement of the latter 
State, and notwithstanding more than one 
third of the people of the former are of that 
class recently held as slaves, the statistics 
show that for every crime committed in North 
Carolina there are more than three committed 
in Massachusetts. 

There is hardly a State of the North in 
which there have not been bloodshed and riots. 
I have been told by a citizen of a great north- 
ern city, within the past fortnight, that it was 
‘dangerous to walk upon the streets of that 
city after sunset; and he is corroborated by 
the newspapers. In one judicial circuit of the 
State of Indiana, according to the statement 
of the judge therein presiding, there have been 
actually more men murdered by mobs in the 
past four years than have been killed by Ku 
Klux in the whole State of North Carolina 
from their organization to this day. And yet 
no soldiers have been sent there. 

In his charge to the grand jury touching the 
murder of the Park family in Clark county, 

. Indiana, and the hanging of the three negroes 
charged with the commission of the murder, 
Judge Dunham said: 


‘Within the last four years, in this judicial cir- 
cuit, there have been thirteen men murdered before 
these three. Five were hung upon the beech trees 
below Seymour—I speak words plainly; I do not 
mince them—one of whom was an orphan boy, just 
arrived at the age of maturity, left without mother, 
worse than fatherless. I think he was less than 
twenty-one. He was one of the victims of that mur- 
der. Two more were hung in the court-house yard 
at Brownstown; four in the jail-yard in the very 
heart of New Albany, one of whom the whole com- 

_ munity now believe innocent—I mean the youngest 
victim of the murder; two south of Orleans, between 
there and Seymour. I believe if you count them 
you will find they number thirteen. Thirteen men 

jung by the neck in this State; more men than 
ele =e ALY © been judicially hanged in this State, in my 

i‘ opinion, since Indiana has been a State.” 


The men who hanged those three negroes 
were said to have been disguised, and were, 
therefore, Ku Klux I suppose; but was there 
anything in the social and political condition 
of that State which could by possibility ex- 
tenuate such crimes? The editor of the New 
York Tribune seemed to think there was; 
for in his paper of December 13 last, in com- 
menting upon this case, he says: 

“When lynching becomes fashionable it is fair to 





4 


assume that the laws are not honestly executed and 
the courts are not pure. It is because judges were 
believed to be corrupt and timid, prosecutors un- 
faithful, or jurorsin complicity with the criminals, 
that Indiana mobs took the privilege of punishment 
into their own hands, and whenever and wherever 
justice is similarly prostituted we shall have murder 
usurping the functions of the law.” 


I emphasize the last two lines because they 
contain the whole philosophy of Ku Kluxism. 
The people of North Carolina experienced for 
years that same prostitution of justice, and 
are now suffering from it. Lawless men in 
organized bands did usurp the functions of the 
law, because justice was prostituted under the 
influenceof other wicked and dangerous organ- 
izations to which they opposed themselves. If 
there had been no secret societies such as the 
‘Red Strings,’’ ‘‘ Heroes of America,’’ and 


‘‘Union Leagues,’? whose members commit- ~~ 


ted murders and rapes, burned barns, and 
intimidated voters by threats and scourgings, 
and then escaped punishment, there never 
would have been any Ku Klux. The one 
begot the other and always will do it in any 
country. It is all wrong, to be sure, but it 
is intensely human. 

I purpose confining my remarks to events 
which have occurred in my own State, because 
the condition of the other southern States has 
been and will be fully discussed by other mem- 
bers of the committee whose duties, as such, 
have brought them more particularly under 
their notice. : 

I shall not go back to the year 1672, as this 
majority report does on page 278, and discuss 
the general wickedness of the Government of 
Sir John Yeamans.in Carolina, because 1 do 
not see its immediate bearing on the question 
before the Housé. There was no evidence 
before the committee going to show that Sir 
John Yeamans was a Ku Klux in 1672, and 
that therefore the habeas corpus ought to be 
suspended in 1872, although it would be quite 
as logical and reasonable to do so as to sus- 
pend it for offenses committed several years 
ago, as the committee proposes. 

I shall, in a few words, simply contrast the 
condition of North Carolina before the war 
with her present state. ‘There was no land on 
the globe inhabited by a braver, purer, more 
honest and hospitable people than that State 
wag. Containing no great citiés and few rail- 
roads, her citizens were plain, unpretending 
agriculturists. It was on her soil that the first 
Declaration of Independence was made, on the 
20th of May, 1775, more than a year before Jef- 
ferson penned, in almost the same language, his 
immortal paper. Her people, while devoted to 
the Union, loved her more; for she was their 
mother before the Union had any existence. 
Rejoicing in peace, they always responded 


ene enengeseemearsunnmnnmessnaersnsmnsenemammenseressernsasnamsreeenencemeeneeree asc 





promptly to the call of their country in every 
war in which it was engaged, and when our late 
unhappy revolution was inaugurated, though 
they entered it sorrowfully, they fought through 
it splendidly; and to-day, beneath the melan- 
choly mounds with which that southern land 
is billowed, there are more North Carolinians 


sleeping, in proportion to the population of | 


the State, than there are soldiers from any 
other State on either side. 
economical government, and a very learned 
and spotless judiciary, against whom no sus- 
picion was ever breathed. And I will add, 
for the benefit of the gentleman who so elab- 
orately tabulated their illiteracy, that before 
the war they had, besides their colleges, acad- 
emies, and high schools, thirty-five hundred 
common schools, attended by one hundred and 
fifty thousand children, or two thirds of all in 
the State, between five and twenty-one years 
‘ of age, and owned a school fund larger by 
$500,000 than the State of Massachusetts had. 
The State debt was comparatively small, taxes 


were light, the administration of justice cheap, | 


and official corruption unknown. 
Such was their happy condition twelve years 
ago. Whatis itnow? Let the figures furnished 
by a former State treasurer, published in the 
minority report of this committee, on page 378, 
tell, so far as the financial situation is con- 
cerned. They are summed up as follows: 


Taxable property of the State of North Carolina in 
18604...... Ree, Ler ce culevesteoercnens $292,297 ,602 
Taxable property of North Carolina in 


g BST Bek cs os STEN AEA ES RRA AC ii AO 130,378,622 
Taxation for State purposes in 1860......... 543,643 
Taxation for State purposes in 1870.......... 1,160,413 
Taxation for county purposes in 1860...... 255,117 
Taxation for county purposes in 1870...... 923,624 
Average cost of conducting the State 

government for three years, (1858, 1859, 

BET LOD) peatcrts cece cceneee dnaniteceerttenttas ertshcess 137,977 
Average cost for three years, (1868, 1869, 

AUTVCS LO TO) eee cecre cnc ents eaten ceeeettce Aipsbirgy ei abe) 576,738 
Public debt of North Carolina in 1861...... 9,699,500 
Publie debt of North Carolina in 1871...... 34,887,465 


From these figures it appears that the State 
debt has been increased nearly fourfold since 
the war, (for the war debt is excluded,) as 
also have been the yearly expenses of the State 
and the county taxes each; while, although the 
taxable property has decreased one half, the 
taxation for State purposes has doubled. These 
figures are more eloquent than any speech can 
be, and contain an epitome of the history of 
Radical reconstruction. In them can be found, 
too, one of the causes of Ku Kluxism, but by 
no means the only one. 

I shall now proceed to discuss in a general 
way some of the other features of. our situ- 
ation. 

And first, I wish to say that the effort which 


They hada simple, 


ee 





has been made to identify the Democratic or 
Conservative party of my State with the Ku 
Klux, and to make the terms convertible, is 
grossly unjust, and most discreditable to those 
making the charge. I do not know of a single 
public man of that party who has not publicly 
denounced Ku Kluxism as not only criminal 
per se, but when committed by Democrats, as 
disastrous in a party point of view. And still 
the allegation is persistently made that they are 
responsible for all these offenses, and the par- 
tisan press still continues to denounce every 
man “opposed to the Radical infamies which 
have disgraced the State as one of the ‘‘Ku 
Klux Democracy.’’ 

A year ago, when, after defeating a native 
Radical who commenced the canvass with 
about two thousand majority, I applied for 
admission to my seat, a petition, purporting 
to be signed by fifteen hundred names, was pre- . 
sented in the Senate protesting against the ad- 
mission of Governor Vance and myself upon 
the ground that we ‘‘ were elected by system- 
atic violence and bloodshed, for which we were 
individually responsible,’’ when the facts, so 
far as | was concerned, were that during a 
heated canvass of twelve counties, including 
the day of election, there was not throughout 
the entire district a single breach of the peace, 
nor any complaint that a single human being 
had been interfered with in the slightest de- 
gree in the exercise of his right of suffrage. 
The great mass of the ostengible signers of 
the petition were colored men who could not 
write, and some of them came to me apd told | 
me they never authorized the use of their 
names, While others said they had been de- 
ceived as to the character of. the petition. 
When the matter was exposed in the Senate. 
the base libelers who had prepared the peti- 
tion added the crime of perjury to the previous 
one of forgery by swearing thatthey had signed 
the names by authority and under circum: 
stances involving a physical impossibility. 
This, however, is but a weak illustration of 
the uniform rascality which has characterized 
he career of the Republican party of that — 
State. : 

Take one of the latest specimens, which is 
furnished by the case of my colleague, [Mr. 
Leacu.] According to the affidavits of re- 
spectable men of both political parties, it is as 
clear a case of malicious prosecution and per- 
secution for political reasons as ever disgraced 
the judicial annals of any State. He is one 
of those true sons of the soil whose services in 
exposing and denouncing the crimes of that 
party aud in defeating one of its best candi- 
dates in a large Republican district, have made 
him an object of terror to its aspiring states- 
men. It was necessary to get him out of the 
way, and it was thought best to charge him 
with being a Ku Klux. The attempt was made 





by one of the leading Republicans of that part 
of the State, a Federal officeholder, and the 
result was that the witness introduced to estab- 
lish the charge confessed, on cross-examina- 
tion, that he was instigated by that officer 
under a promise that he would be discharged 
from a prosecution for violating ihe revenue 
laws, and was told by him that Leacu must be 
got rid of and his popularity broken down, for 
the Government officer wanted his (Leacu’s) 
place in Congress. It was further proved by 
Democrats and Republicans alike that my col- 
league had, when invited, refused to join a 
_ secret political society, had warned his fellow- 
_ Citizens against it, had denounced it asillegal, 
and had actually broken it up. 

And yet so great is their fear of his popular- 
ity, and so determined are they to‘hunt him 
down, that they have gotup a new indictment 
against him in the United States court for ‘in- 
timidating voters,’’ and a part of the pro- 
pramme is to have his case taken up during 
the next summer term, so as to keep him out 


of the coming canvass as much as possible. : 


They are certainly welcome to all the votes 
they make by that proceeding. I have cited 
these two instances to show how the politicians 
of that party illustrate its ‘‘ great moral ideas.’’ 
I will now give you a specimen or two of the 
judicial officers of that party, upon whom has 
devolved the task of purifying the morals of 
that community. A witness who sustains a 
high character as a lawyer and gentleman, 
testified before our committee in regard to 
one judge (who still rides a large circuit) as 
follows: 


**He took a prisoner out of jail at twelve o’clock 
at night and offered him amnesty and pardonif he 
would swear enough to convict me. Another per- 
son, a deputy marshal of the United States, stated 
in a public crowd that he was authorized by Judge 
Logan to say that any man who would swear enough 
to convict me of being the chief of the organization 


in Lincoln county should have amnesty and pardon.” 


The same witness filed as part of his testi- 
mony a copy of a memorial signed by thirty- 
two lawyers, including every ‘one of both 
parties practicing in that circuit, (except the 
solicitor of the court, and two State senators, 
who would have been his judgeg in case of 
impeachment, and whose official position, 
therefore, made it improper for them to take 
part in the proceedings of the bar, but who 
approved them,) wherein it is alleged that jus- 
tice had been impeded, confidence in the efh- 
ciency,of the Government and laws had been 
impaired, crimes had been multiplied, &c., by 
reason of the ‘‘incompetency,’’ as they termed 
it, of that judge; and the witness testified that 


‘his partisan administration of justice’’ was } 


what was referred to by the word incompe- 
tency. Healso said that that partiality ‘‘ was so 


gross as to be observed byeverybody,’’ and he 
cited instances of it to the committee in which 
the judge would fine a Democrat $100 for a 
trifling offense, and when a Radical who had 
cruelly beaten a Democrat with a slung-shot 
without any provocation was convicted he 
would fine him a penny and costs. 

That judge has made most ‘‘loyal’’ efforts 
in behalf of the Government against the Ku 
Klux in the way I have mentioned, but although 
he added to ignorance and partisanship what 
a meeting of the bar solemnly resolved was 
‘* a willful violation of the plain letter of the 
law,’? and although the memorial was pre- 
sented to the late Democratic Legislature, they 
refrained from impeaching him, because of 
their anxious desire to avoid even the appear- 
ance of partisanship, and to keep down polit- 
ical excitement. Another one cf the Radical 
judges resigned after steps had been taken for 
his impeachment, another has been publicly 
charged with receiving a bribe, others with 
habitual drunkenness and the grossest igno- 
rance; but life is too short, to say nothing of 
my brief hour, for a recital in detail of all 
these things. The conduct of these officers,” 
and of the United States deputy marshals and 
detectives, destroyed all confidence among the 
people in the courts, anda few of the more 
reckless of them, consequently, sometimes 
took the law into their own hands. . They were 
nothing more nor less than vigilance commit- 
tees, such as have existed in other parts of the 
country, and they never embraced any consid- 
erable number of the citizens ; but’their exist- 
ence has been made the pretext for maligning 
the whole population of the State, not only 
by a partisan press, but in the official docu- | 
ments of the executive department of the 
Government. 

The President, in his message, while appear- 
ing to desire to harmonize public sentiment 
and inaugurate long-demanded reforms, in- 
dulged in the usual misrepresentation of the 
southern people, and foreshadowed the report 
of the majority of this committee. By what 
authority he undertook to say what the com- 
mittee would report Ido not know. The com- 
mittee did not confer with him upon the sub- 
ject, and they authorized no one to do so, or 
to say what their report would be. However 
that may be, the facts alleged by him as to the 
state of society in the South are not true, but 
they were sufficient, perhaps, for.the accom- 
plishment of the desired purpose. The Presi- 
dent in that message, among other baseless 
assertions, says that in every case of arrest in 
South Carolina during the time the Aabeas 
corpus was suspended, there was ‘‘indubitable 
evidence of the guilt of the parties seized,’’ and 
yet I know that one gentleman, a descendant 
of a judge of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and a grandson of a distinguished Gov- 


ernor of North Carolina, was arrested and 
confined for thirty-four days and nights in a 


dungeon, a part of the time in the same cell | 


with a negro felon, before he was informed of 
the accusation against him, and when at the 
expiration of that time he was informed of the 
charge, so promptly and conclusively proved 
its falsity that even his military persecutors 
were compelled from mere shame to release 
him at once. That gentleman has no redress, 
and his case is by no means a solitary one. 
Perhaps the most pitiful complaint in that 
message against our people was one which was 
worn out by the carpet-bag thieves and Freed- 
men’s Bureau bummers several years ago. If 
allude to the whine about social ostracism. 
That is a erime which it is impossible to per- 
petrate against a gentleman, and therefore it 
findsa place in the catalogue of offenses com- 
plained of by the Executive against the southern 
people. What proper connection that has with 
our duties as citizens of the General Govern- 


ment, and how it is to be made a subject of ff 


legislation by Congress are questions which 
stagger me. The Secretary of War, too, found 
if necessary to give an excuse for the eampaign 
in the South, inasmuch as the Army was 
needed elsewhere, and, with a decidedly muli- 
tary emphasis worthy of the war minister of a 
military Government, he, scorning the assist- 
ance of any evidence, proclaims as a fact. that 
‘‘a second rebellion exists, the suppression 
of which requires the presence of the Army.’’ 
He says, too: 


“Tt is a painful fact that in some portions of the 
South freedom of opinion is not tolerated if that 
opinion is expressed in opposition to the doctrines 
of the late rebellion f”’ 


As the Secretary in 1861 was afraid the re- 
bellion would not succeed,and vexed his soul 
with anxiety on that subject, perhaps he ought 
to know the ‘‘doctrines’’ on which it was based. 
The generally receivéd opinion, I believe, is 


that those ‘‘doctrines’’ were the right of a | 


State to secede, and the right to hold slaves. 
The allegation of the Secretary, therefore, is 
that a new rebellion exists, and that the south- 
ern people will not tolerate opposition to se- 
cession and slavery—an assertion which illus- 
trates alike the veracity of the Secretary and 
the extent of his confidence in the intelligence 
of the people. 

Why did not the President and the Secretary 
tell you that in a county of the district which 


one 
murdering white men with impunity ;-that they 
have killed twenty-four respectable citizens, 
(more than the Ku Klux have ever killed in 
the whole State ;) that the citizens had begged 
for United States soldiers, and that a squad 
was sent there, and, like the army of the king 





I represent, a band of negro outlaws, led by | 
Lostes, have for years been robbing and | 





10 


| of France, had ‘‘ marched up the hill and then 


marched down again,’’ their only experience 
being to hear the crack of Lowrey’s rifle within 
two hundred yards of their camp, and to see a 
murdered citizen lying on the highway? If 
Lowrey’s gang had been Ku-Klux, and the 
victims had been negroes or Republicans, does. 
anybody believe they would now be roaming 
through the eountry producing a reign -of 
terror ? 

Why did they not tell you thai their soldiers, 
not content with running riot over the poor, 
degraded, humiliated State of South Carolina, 
had, with all the panoply of war, invaded North 
Carolina, where the machinery of civil govern- 
ment was quietly at work, and had arrested the 
chairman of the board of commissioners of 
Cleveland *county and three other citizens, 
had abducted them by forge out of the State, 
and had impris@ned them without form or 
color of law in South Carolina,where the habeas 
corpus was suspended, and where they could 
not even inquire into the cause of their arrest, 
or get the least redress for such an outrage ? 
Why did they not tell you that some of the — 
United States marshals in North Carolina go 
about with pistols in their belts and cowhides 
in their hands insulting and brow-beating citi- 
zens, exacting legal fees from and black- 
mailing them, arresting and imprisoning them 
upon the merest pretext, and then discharging 
them without a trial; that one of them had 
shot down with impunity and left:lying on the 
roadside an inoffensive citizen, against whom 
he had no process, and who had offered him no 
resistance, because he would not go to jail at 
his bidding, and that this official assassin had 
gone scot-free? Whichof the gentlemen so 
eager to punish Ku Klux and protect the peo- 
ple in the enjoyment of their rights and liber- 
ties has anything to say about these and other 
similar outrages? What Republican news- 
papers of the North have even commented on 
them? Who has condemned them? 

I state facts. A poor, hard-working farmer 


| has toiled a whole year to make bread for his 


family; he has gathered his little crop and 
housed it; he eats his frugal evening meal, 
and with cheerful gratitude goes to his humble 
bed; he is roused at midnight by the crackling 
flame which glevours the whole fruits of his 
year’s labor, his all, while the loyal Union 
League incendiary walks away in the light of 
the conflagration. Heis arrested, tried, con- 
victed; a corrupt judge sets aside the verdict, 
or a corrupt Governor pardons him. The law 
gives no redress. The farmer, im despairgt the 
prospect of starvation before his family, blows. 
his own brains out; his outraged neighbors 
take the law into their own hands and hang the 
incendiary, and immediately the whole coun- 
try rings with the ery of ‘‘Ku Klux.’’ But 
when armed soldiers, under command of an 


11 





_ 


officer, make araid from one State into another, 
arrest, drag off, and incarcerate its citizens in, 
that other State, where they cannot enjoy even 
the poor privilege of having their cause invest- 
ivated, no one of these guardians of public lib- 
erty lifts his voice in condemnation; and when 
I, as the Representative of these outraged 
people, introduce a respectful resolution of 
inquiry into the crime, it is objected to and 
not received by this House. 

Hear another case. Another Loyal Leaguer 
commits a cold-blooded murder; he is con- 
victed and sent to the penitentiary ; he is soon 
pardoned out and returns to the scene of his 
crime, flaunting his pardon in the face of the 
community, and boasting his immunity from 
punishment for future crime. Within a week 
he commits another crime, and is in jail within 
a fortnight of his former release. He boasts 
that he will soon again be free, and assigns as 
a reason for his faith that the» Governor will 
' befriend him and all like him: The friends 
of his victims wrongfully, but humanly, determ- 
ine that he shall not escape punishment, and 
they hang him, whereupon the same cry of 
“Ku Klux’”’ and ‘‘rebellion’’ is raised. But 
a deputy United States marshal meetsa stranger 
on the highway, arrests him without warrant, 
and without alleging any offense against him 
attempts to take him to prison, and when the 
prisoner, without any resistance, tries to rua 
away, he shoots him down, leaves his body on 
the roadside, and proceeds serenely about his 
business. If these things are told on the streets 
of your cities the reply is apt to be a yawn, a 
shrug of the shoulders, and perhaps an inquiry 
as to the price of Seneca sandstone. 

Indeed, it would be exactly in accordance 
with the policy of this Administration if each 
of these loyal villains shall be promoted for 
his valuable services. Look at the favors al- 
ready bestowed on their predecessors in crime. 
The late Governor of North Carolina, after 
being impeached and removed from office, and 
after being indicted in the courts from which he 
was a fugitive, took refuge here in the bosom of 
the Administration as editor ofits organ. Kirk, 
the cut-throat whom he impofted trom Ten- 
nessee to oppress and outrage his fellow-citi- 
zens with the bayonet, a man who ought to go 
down to everlasting infamy for the murder of 
a poor, half-witted boy who knelt pitifully to 
him, and begged for his life in vain, this Kirk, 
who also fled from justice, came here for his 
reward, and got it. Bergen, Kirk’s lieuten- 
ant colonel, another fugitive from justice, was 
appointed consul to Pernambuco. The former 
carpet-bag treasurer of the city in which [ live, 
and who was a defaulter in that office, naturally 
gravitated to the Treasury of the United States, 
and was recently promoted in the Third Audi- 
tor’s Office, his defaleation being known to the 








Third Auditor, andas I have reason to believe, 
to the Secretary of the T’reasury also. Ought 
we not to expect that the officer who raided 
into North Carolina, and the deputy United 
States marshal who shot down the inoffensive 
citizen, will also, be promoted ? 

I could cite numberless instances of this 
kind, and for each one could find as broad a 
contrast. But what would it avail? I am 
told that the northern people cannot be roused 
by a recital of these acts of despotism in the 
South; that nothing will bring them to a real: 
ization of the true: situation until the armed 
heel of the despot rings before their own 
doors. If this be true, can a southern man 
be expected to weep when the catastrophe 
happens? I think not. If the wrongs and 
outrages and usurpations practiced on them | 
are matters of indifference to their country- 
men of the North, then they are. paving the 
way which leads to a similar experience,. and 
will deserve no sympathy when they réach it. 
If the ‘‘nation could not exist half slave and 
half free,’’ it is very.certain that it cannot and 
ought not to exist with the people of one half 
of it domineering and tyrannizing over the 
other; imposing upon them more than their 
fall share of the burdens of Government, and 
denying to them any part of its benefits. 

You crowned your reconstruction legislation, 
which bankrupted and ruined and degraded 


| those States, by this unconstitutional Ku Klax 


bill; and what have been its fruits? You 
succeeded in convicting a few criminals and 
alleged criminals, and in punishing them, but 
the amount of perjury and general demoraliza- 
tion which it has produced, the terror result- 
ing in the expatriation of hundreds of inno- 
cent families which it has wrought, the false 
and pernicious ideas in regard to the relation 
between a certain class of citizens and the 
government which it has developed, the antag-. 
onisms of race, and the bitterness and hatred 
which it has fostered, outweigh a million times 
the combined benefits which its most honest 
advocates ever dreamed it could effect; and 
to-day the majority of this committee come 
before Congress and ask that its most offensive 
and outrageous features may continue to be 
enforced beyond the time limited in the bill! 
This, too, in the face of the fact that accord- 
ing to the testimony the bulk of the crimes 
complained of were committed before the bill 
passed Congress a year ago. y 
Gentlemen who wish to continue this kind 
of legislation must know that they are alien: 
ating the southern people more and more 
every day. Those people would not be human 
beings, much less enlightened American citi- 
zens, if the result could be otherwise, and 
therefore, notwithstanding the profession of a 
desire to pacify them and restore to them good 


12 


a ED 
ooo aS NY 
r 


governments, the conviction forces itself upon 
them that these gentlemen do not want them 
to be peaceable and quiet and prosperous, but 
would be glad to goad them to desperation or 
drivethem intoexile. They heard here within 
the past few weeks one of them deny that the 
carpet-bag governments of those States ,had 
been corrupt, and another express a desire to 
see a hundred southern men taken out before 
breakfast every morning and shot. They hear 
on this floor, in almost every debate which 
arises, gratuitous insults heaped upon them in 
regard to their illiteracy and barbarism by 
those who never having shed a drop of their 
own or their enemies’ blood when war raged 
in the country, now signalize their patriotism 
by throwing dirt in the face of their prostrate 
and harmless prisoners. 

And when they hear these things reiterated 
seven years after the war, and feel the legisla- 
tion which is the natural result of such a state 
of mind, they ask themselves whether such 

eople can be other than their bitter enemies. 
von have done damage enough already, God 
knows. Stop this kind of legislation. Give 
us the rights guarantied to us by the Constitu- 
tion, even as amended by your own hands. 
Emancipate those people from the political 
bondage in which they bave so long been held. 
Stop sowing the seeds of hate in their breasts. 
Make them feel that you are their countrymen 
and not their enemies. Divest them of the 
conviction which daily grows among them that 
you intend to force their support of the dom- 
inant political party or make their land a wil- 
derness. 

But the committee recommend general am- 
nesty—of course to the Senate, for the House 
has already passed it. I trust that much of 
their report will be adopted. Sir, among the 
most impressive and suggestive scenes of mod- 
ern times was that which the American people 
have been more than once called upon to wit- 
ness within the past year, wherein a foreign- 
born American citizen, once an insurrectionist 
and an exile, standing upon the floor of the 
highest legislative assembly of the Republic, 
was seen eloquently rebuking, in the purest 
idiomatic HKnglish, his native-born colleagues 
for their recreancy to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of American liberty. It was to me, sir, 
a strange and suggestive episode. It furnished 
food for profitable meditation. That citizen, 
armed with the irresistible weapons of philo- 
sophic statesmanship, enlarged culture, and 
practical experience, has, in defiance of the 
power of party discipline and ‘‘the crack of 
the party whip,’’ nobly dared to vindicate the 
honor and character of the American people 
against the degrading and demoralizing prin- 
ciples with which his native-born colleagues 
have sought to discredit them. Itwas indeed, 





sir,a singular spectacle, and one which ought 


‘not to be allowed to pass away without impress- 


ing upon the thoughtful American a valuable 
lesson. 

A student of history and a close observer 
of events, he has been impelled by a spirit of 
intelligent patriotism, and an imperative sense 
of duty, to raise his voice against the danger- 
ous tendencies of the recent legislation of 
Congress. In common with his German fel- 
low-citizens, he loves liberty and hates tyranny 
and dishonest government. He has my respect’ 
and sympathy, and doubtless will continue to 
receive, as he richly deserves, the confidence 
and support of his admiring fellow-citizens. 


‘When pleading for amnesty to his southern 


countrymen, whom he had faced amid the 
blaze and smoke of battle, but against whom 
he cherishes no animosity, he was asked to 
point to a single instance in history where con- 
ciliation and amnesty to rebels had made them 
good and loyal citizens, and in reply he simply 
mentioned the name of Count Andrassy in 
Austria. Doubtless the illustration was lost, 
for the eyes and ears of his interrogator were 
most probably innocent of ever having seen or 
heard that name; but there is a history behind 
it which might furnish a profound lesson to the 
would-be statesmen who are refusing amnesty 
to the southern people and piling up hostile and 
irritating legislation against them. ‘I’'wenty- 
three years ago a rebellion broke out in Hun- 
gary, which, after lasting eleven months, dur- 
ing which three magnificent though bloody 
campaigns were fought, was finally. crushed 
through the intervention of Russia and. the 
treachery of the Hungarian general, Gorgey. 
The Archduchess Sophia, mother of the pres- 
ent emperor of Austria, a relentless and un- 
merciful despot, undertook to ‘‘ make treason 
odious,’’ and her executioners drenched Hun- 
gary in blood. The prayers and tears of even 
the loyal relatives of the victims for ‘mercy 
were not heard. Eleven of the most prom- 
inent generals and statesmen of Hungary 
perished by the hangman’s hands, besides 
hundreds of others. Count Andrassy, then 
Kossuth’s agent at Constantinople, in common 
with many others who did not fall into the 
hands of Austria, was sentenced to death and 
a price placed on his head. Time wore on, 
and the Nemesis of history drew nearer and 
nearer, not only to the personal fortunes of 
the Archduchess, but to those of her dynasty. 
She lived to see the woful day when all her 
prayers and tears pleaded in vain for the life 
of her favorite son, Maximilian. . The Sol- 
ferino campaign cost Austria the splendid 
province of Lombardy; with the fearful de- 
feat of Sadowa went the last of her Italian 
possessions, and then was forced the conces- 
sion to Hungary not only of amnesty, resto- 


13 


ration of confiscated property, and that polit- 
ical liberty for which she had fought, but 


Austria herself had to descend from her proud . 


position of supreme autocracy to the level of 
constitutional sovereignty and representative 
government in which Hungarians have a potent 
voice, while Andrassy, the sentenced rebel, 
the exile on whose head a price was fixed, is 
the president of the Austrian cabinet and 
the trusted friend and counselor of Francis 
Joseph. The distinguished ¢Senator might 
have strengthened his illustration by citing 
the case of the Vendeans, who, after defeat- 
ing the proudest armies of Europe with clubs 
and fowling-pieces under the lead of young La 
Rochejaquelin of glorious memory, and who, 
after suffering a butchery at which humanity 
turned pale, were made the very bulwark of 
France by the wise policy of conciliation which 
Napoleon the Great inaugurated toward them 


as soon as he grasped the reins of power.. 


He might have still further-enforced the illus- 
tration by calling attention to the effects of 
a repressive policy upon the people of. Ire- 
land. England put down revolts in Scotland 
and Wales, but with their suppression she 
ceased all hostile legislation, and the result 
has been that the people of those two coun- 
tries are to-day, and have long been, the most 
loyal and faithful of British subjects. Toward 
Ireland, on the contrary, there has been for two 
hundred years an established system of refined 
eruelty, and the fruits of it have appeared in 
the Ku Kluxism of that unhappy country under 
the names of ‘‘ White Boys,’’ ‘‘ Rapparees,’’ 
‘* Ribbon Men,’’ ‘* Mollie McGuires,’’ ‘‘ Peep 
O’Day Boys,’’ ‘‘ Rockites,’’ &. The more 
considerate treatment of late years has par- 
tially allayed the evil, but to-day Ireland is 
the weak spot in the British armor, through 
which, if at all, she will receive her death- 
blow. 

What a lesson there is too, in the course of 
Charles II, touching the ‘‘act of oblivion,”’ 
in 1660, and what a striking similarity there 
is between the conduct of the two branches 
of his Parliament on that subject and that of 
the two Houses of Congress in regard to am- 
nesty. ‘* This act of oblivion,’’ says the author 
of the debates in the House of Lords, ‘‘ the 
Commons, after having been quickened by a 
message from the king, made short work of, 
and sent up to the Lords, where it met with 
several obstructions and delays. The Com- 
mons had excepted only a few of the most 
notorious regicides, whereas the Lords were 
for giving their resentment a much larger 
scope. ‘I'his severity of theirs not suiting, 
however, with the policy of the times, his 
Majesty came to the house (July 27) and from 
the throne expressed himself as follows: 

** My lords, when I came first hither to you, which 
was within two or three days after I came to White- 


LEIS ALLELE LL TO LCD DO CL LLY OTT TELE TI 


hall, I did, with as much earnestness as I could, 
both by myself and the chancellor, recommend to 
you and the House of Commons the speedy dis- 
patch of the act of indemnity as a necessary found- 
ation of that security we all pray for. I did since, 
by a particular message to the House of Commons, 
again press to hasten that important work, and did 
likewise, bya proclamation, publish to all the king- 
dom that I did with impatience expect that that 
act would be presented to me for my assent as the 
most reasonable and solid foundation of that peace, 
happiness, and security I hope and pray for to 
myself and all my dominions. I wili not deny it to 
you that I thought the House of Commons too long 
about that work, and therefore, now it is come up 
to you, [ would not have you guilty of the same 
delay.’”’ 


The chancellor. subsequently called their 
especial attention to the provisions of the act 
prohibiting the calling of ‘‘names or other 
words of reproach any way leading to revive 
the memory of the late differences or the occa- 
sion thereof,’’ and appealed to them ‘‘to learn 
the excellent art of forgetfulness.’’ Cannot 
Americans in the nineteenth century learn that 
excellent art practiced by a Stuart two hun- 
dred years ago? 

Now, while admitting neither the wisdom 
nor justice of such a course on the part of 
this Government, I am persuaded that it would 
have been more merciful to the southern people 
to have hanged or shot as many of us as would 
have glutted the vengeance of the politicians 
immediately after the war, than to have kept 
up for purely party purposes the system of 
robbery, fraud, and oppression which has, since 
the war ended, been unrelentingly exercised 
over them. That system has but illustrated 
the truth of what the blessed St. Augustine 
said concerning such a state of peace as we 
enjoy: 


‘* Heec facta sunt in pace post bellum. Pax cum 
bello de crudelitate certavit, et vicit. Illud enim 
prostravit armatos, istud nudatos. Bellum erat, ut 
qui feriebatur, si posset, feriret; pax autem non 
ut qui evaserat viveret, sed ut moriens non repug- 
naret.’’ 


Your peace has surpassed war in cruelty. 
You have struck down the helpless and naked, 
and now, when the armor has been stripped 
from your former antagonists, your policy 
seems to be not only that they shall not live, 
but that even in dying they shall not defend 
themselves. It is not too late now to repair 
your error and to make the southern people 
your friends. Try it, but not in the way rec- 
ommended by the majority of this committee, 
Do not accompany an act of grace. as you term 
it, with a renewed system of oppression and 
outrage. If you do, where will be your claim 
to gratitude? It is a radical error to suppose 


| | 14 y i : 


that the men who are iio bare Seomibitoa tiny Enotrane® | by the four- 
teenth amendment from holding office are con- 
sumed with a passion to taste of the flesh-pots 
of this Egypt. There are some things dearer 
to them than office, and the fear that they will 
again return to plague the modern exponents of 
Americanism may be dismissed. I have never 
considered this amnesty business the only one 
thingneedful. I have never regarded the with- 
holding of it by Congress as the cause of all 
our woes, nor will.the granting of it be a pan- 
acea for them. It is but one, and by no means 
the most serious, of the impediments which 
lie in the way of our return to prosperity; 


but the concession of it will greatly smooth 
that way. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, I have done. Thave 
spoken as I felt, and. have uttered feebly, but 
sincerely, what '[ believe to be the honest sen- 
timents of every true man south of the Poto- 
mac. I hope it is the last time I shall ‘ever 
find it to be my duty to speak in this behalf, 
but until my tongue is palsied I shall always 
be ready to do so if occasion shall require, for 
I jove the land’ of my birth and the people 
whose afflictions have excited the sympathy, 
as their fortitude under them commands the 
admiration, of-the civilized world. 

















Photomount 
Pamphlet 
Binder 
Gaylord Bros. 
Makers 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
PAT. JAN 21, 1908 





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